Valencia students take top prize in Destination Imagination

One team from Valencia Elementary school won first prize in the 2010 New Mexico Destination Imagination on Feb. 20 in Albuquerque.

“This is the third year that we participated in the tournament. We were given the challenges,” said Katrina Prince, the team advisor.

Prince said one team from Lindsey Elementary and two teams from Portales Junior High also participated in this game. “Chop Suey,” a team from PJHS, won the second place of “You’re Gonna Flip.”

“They had to research endangered species, and they had to understand personality traits of ten different types of people. They had seven minutes to prepare for their skit, and then went on the stage. Also they had to play baseball, which was an ability to cooperate well with each other.”

“Blue Penguins” who won the first prize of “Do or Di,” were one of two Valencia teams competing. The other, “Brain Stormers,” finished second in “DI-Bot”.

“I learned from this competition that you have to do team work to finish the task,” said Emily Brown, one of the team members.

“We have to be prepared and ready for everything.” said team member Brock Thompson.

Danielle Waller designed a T-shirt for the competition.

“I was thinking about what I could do and I saw my sister’s last shirt design. I thought maybe I could improve it, and I sketched it down on paper,” Waller said.

Destination Imagination is sponsored by Creative Programs of New Mexico, Inc. a Non-profit organization. Its goal is to provide children with a quality creative problem-solving program, giving them an opportunity to learn to use teamwork and creativity skills to solve complex problems.